By Suchismita Pattanaik
In 1947, world federalists met together in Montreux (Switzerland) to pursue the establishment of the World Federal Government for sustained peace. In 1997, the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and World Federalist Movement (WFM) held a joint world congress in Montreux to celebrate the historic 50th Anniversary. Here, we are celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Montreux Declaration, reflecting on how far our efforts in establishing the World Federal Government have yielded fruits and in light of it, planning the way forward.
UEF is certainly an integral part of the WFM as are all the other member organizations. UEF has demonstrated how a miniature model of the World Federal Government could work at the regional level with the work of the European Union being a supranational institution with the support of the Spinelli Group in the European Parliament.
It is very difficult to even dream of establishing a world federal government unless you are a part of a larger group and being part of the larger WFM, the global vision of the establishment of the World Federal Government for UEF still remains.
I was a delegate on behalf of the Centre for the United Nations Constitutional Research (CUNCR) to attend UNFCCC conference COP27 held in Egypt to combat climate change. There, we advocated for climate democracy and giving the right to youth to vote at COP. I can visualize how European Federalists and World Federalists could approach Climate changeissuestogether effectively. Keeping the motto of “World Peace through World Law, WFM & UEF could promote a campaign for the establishment of the World Environment Authority.
I see a reference to cooperation with Africa in Agenda, Asia also needs to be supported where two-thirds of the world population and the majority of world’s poor live.
Many of us here have benefited from the International Federalist seminar organized every year at Ventotene by UEF,Italy. UEF should promote similar training grounds for young professionals in order to strengthen ASEAN and SAARC as vibrant regional blocs. I firmly believe strong regional bodies would enhance the promotion of the World Federal Government and European Union has shown us the way.
WFM & UEF could jointly continue to promote the idea of a world federal government and governance of climate change is the existential arena to do this.